Abstract
Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) has consent for thirty turbines to be built within an area of approximately 10km2 some 4 miles off the North Wales coastline within Liverpool Bay between Towyn and Rhôs-on-Sea. Construction is likely to begin at the site during 2007/08.
A beam trawl survey of the proposed development area was undertaken during September 2006 by the Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CMACS) Ltd. to provide information concerning the benthic populations as part of the benthic baseline survey program (see Figure 1 for site locations). The beam trawl site locations (see Figure 1) were first surveyed during September 2005 as part of the pre-construction benthic survey program and will be repeat surveyed both during and postconstruction as part of the proposed monitoring required to comply with the conditions of the Food and Environmental Protection Act (FEPA) 1985: Part II (as amended) issued to ‘npower renewables offshore Ltd’ for Rhyl Flats OWF.
This report details the main findings of the September 2006 survey detailing information regarding individual species accounts and counts of the total numbers of demersal fish and epibenthic invertebrates present. This report also details a comparative analysis between the results of the September 2005 and this years (2006) monitoring survey results.